The subject matter disclosed herein relates to a pulse generator circuit, particularly a pulse generator circuit utilizing a modular approach for generating compressed pulses of adjustable duration and amplitude.
Pulsed power has numerous applications in industry such as medical treatment, biotechnology, food processing, water treatment (e.g., water purification), exhaust gas treatment, ozone generation, and ion implantation. Unfortunately, certain types of pulse generation technology are limited to generation of pulses having a set amplitude, shape, and duration. Some applications in which electric pulses are used (e.g., platelet activation, electroporation) could benefit from the ability to create a series of electric pulses that vary in amplitude, shape, and duration. Currently, for a given pulse-generation device, awkward and time-consuming hardware modifications are involved in creating pulses with a different amplitude or duration. Additional concerns in many environments in which pulse generators are used include, ease of use, the need for physical isolation, and space limitations. There is therefore a need for a system of pulse generation that is configurable in command software rather than hardware, is able to generate pulses, pulse patterns, and pulse clusters of variable duration and amplitude, and is relatively compact while maintaining appropriate physical isolation of components.